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Jefferson MD1Photo: Acroterion · CC BY-SA 4.0
COutdoors
Outdoors in Jefferson

Few parks or trails are on the map in Jefferson

5 acres are parks and preserves, 1.6 per 1,000 residents. 0.1 miles of mapped trail cross Jefferson. 5% of Jefferson’s land is conserved, about 86 acres.

Ahead of 28% of U.S. towns · #243 of 261 in Maryland. What drives it

Conserved land
5%
86 acres · of 2.8 sq mi of land
Trails
0.1 mi
0.0 per sq mi of land
Park land
5 ac
1.6 acres per 1,000 residents
Near a park
61%
of residents within ½ mile
Outdoors grade

How much outdoors does Jefferson have?

On conserved land, trails, park land and how close residents live to a park, Jefferson is ahead of 28% of U.S. towns, #243 of 261 in Maryland. Conserved land holds the grade up; park acres per resident pull it down.

C
OutdoorsA character grade: shown, never part of Jefferson’s overall grade.
Conserved land5% of the land · typical MD town 9% · U.S. 4%BTrails0.0 miles of mapped trail per square mile of land (0 mi) · MD 0.5 · U.S. 0.4C−Park land1.6 acres of park per 1,000 residents (5 acres) · MD 9 · U.S. 13C−Parks close to home61% of residents within a half mile of a park · MD 87% · U.S. 72%B−
All U.S. towns we grade (21,298)Ahead of 28%
LessMore
Maryland towns of 2,500+ (261)Ahead of 7%

Maryland towns conserve more land than most (a typical one, 9%; the U.S., 4%), so Jefferson’s 5% is ahead of 25% of Maryland towns, while its trails per square mile lead 7% of them.

NoteFew parks or trails are mapped in Jefferson. OpenStreetMap is mapped by volunteers and coverage varies from town to town, so a town with unmapped parks scores low on them.
How sure. Graded on any three of the four inputs instead, the letter would range from C− to C+. Trails and many small parks come from OpenStreetMap, mapped by volunteers, so coverage varies from town to town; the half mile is a straight line from each census block, so a river or highway in the way isn’t counted against it.

PAD-US, OpenStreetMap (© OpenStreetMap contributors), Census 2025 Gazetteer and 2020 blocks; details in Sources below. How TownRatings grades the outdoors →

The map

Conserved land, trails & bike routes

Tap a number to zoom to a park. Tap a layer to hide it.

Easements protect land from building but are usually private.© OpenStreetMap contributors · USGS PAD-US
Who protects it

86 conserved acres

5% of Jefferson’s land. Who manages Jefferson’s conserved land, from the USGS Protected Areas Database. Approximate, because parcels can overlap.

Other state land136 ac
County28 ac
Town or city5 ac
Other or Unknown Federal Land1 ac
Agricultural Easement · 136 acForest Stewardship Easement · 20 acConservation Easement · 8 acLocal Park · 5 acFederal Other or Unknown · 1 ac
Good to know

Conserved doesn’t always mean open to visitors. 80 acres are conservation easements, usually private land. Public access isn’t recorded for 3 of 13 parcels. The walks above are places people visit.

The biggest protected parcels
Parcel (PAD-US)Managed byAcresPublic access
Cambridge Farms Park
Local Park
Town or city5Open
US Postal Service 1
Federal Other or Unknown
Other or Unknown Federal Land1Unknown
Things to do

1 places to go in Jefferson

Beaches, playgrounds, peaks, falls and more. Pick a kind.

Playgrounds in Jefferson

1 playground without a name on the map. Tap “Show all on map” to see it.

Biking & sports

0.0 miles of bike routes

Bike lanes are often missing from the map in smaller towns, so that number is likely low.

Courts & fields
1Soccer
1Basketball
1Tennis

Includes school and college facilities, which aren’t always open to the public.

History along the way

2 places on the National Register

The country’s official list of places worth saving (National Park Service).

History →
Lewis Mill ComplexBuilding · listed 1982
About it
Willard, George,HouseBuilding · listed 1993
About it
When to get out

The best walking months in Jefferson: April, June and August

NOAA’s 1991–2020 normals for the town and the daylight at its latitude. Outlined months have long days, highs of 59 to 86 °F and little rain for the place.

JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
Daylight (h)9.710.711.813.214.314.914.713.712.411.110.09.4
High (°F)414453657482878478675545
Rain (in)3.02.63.83.64.54.14.13.34.33.63.13.6

February is the driest month (2.6 in) and July the warmest (highs of 87 °F). 4.5 inches fall in May, the wettest month. Summer highs reach 87 °F, too hot for the outline. The climate in Jefferson →

Questions about parks and trails in Jefferson

How much of Jefferson is conserved land?

5% of its land, against a typical 9% for a Maryland town and 4% nationally (PAD-US). Conserved doesn’t always mean open to visitors: easements are usually private land.

Is there public land near Jefferson?

11,087 acres of parks and open public land lie inside Jefferson or within 10 miles of it (PAD-US), 5 of them inside the town line.

How much outdoors does Jefferson have?

Ahead of 28% of U.S. towns on the Outdoors grade, #243 of 261 in Maryland. The grade combines the share of land that is conserved, miles of mapped trail per square mile of land, park acres per 1,000 residents and the share of residents within a half mile of a park. It’s a character grade, so it isn’t part of the overall grade. How it works.

Trail talk

Conditions, parking and favorite walks from Jefferson neighbors.

Town Square →
Share a tip
Sources

Where this page comes from

Conserved and public land: USGS Protected Areas Database of the United States (PAD-US), service updated July 2026. Parks, trails, playgrounds, beaches and other places: OpenStreetMap (© OpenStreetMap contributors, ODbL), map data as of 2026-10-28. Land and water area: Census 2025 Gazetteer. Residents near a park: 2020 Census blocks. National Register: National Park Service. How TownRatings grades the outdoors →